Celebrating Halloween is part of college experience

Opinion Column: The Scarlet Trotter

So the best time of the year is rolling around, yeah, you guessed it! It's Halloween time. Cue the candy, the movies on ABC, the candy, the creepy decorations and the candy. But what's the best thing about Halloween? You guessed again, the costumes. This is the time of year where you get to be whatever you want, whoever you want, wherever you want.

Costumes are my personal guilty pleasure, especially when it comes to Halloween. Wigs, dresses, gloves, masks and makeup galore — Halloween is the best time of the year when it comes to exploring different sides of you. It's basically every kids dream.

You could be the doctor that your mom always wanted you to become but you never did because blood scares you or you could be the lawyer that your dad always "suggested" you should be. So this isn't just for you, Halloween is a great way to fill all of your family wishes too. But all jokes aside, Halloween is great and what makes it even more special for us — is that we get to be in college for it. There's something to be said about Halloween in college. You're not young enough to go trick or treating and pull off those cute or sweet bunny outfits, but you're not old enough (or rich enough — yet) to go to the city and spend trillions (it's a bit of a stretch) on rooftop bars and super trendy spots for the 31st.

But in college, you get to prance around town in different get ups and outfits without a care. Another great thing about Halloween in a "college" town? It's not just one night, but it can run from the first Tuesday of the week to the following Saturday night. There's no need to end the fun, and I'll bet you even find that one house that hosts a Halloween party two weeks after the 31st. November? More like no problem. Bring on all the house and fraternity parties that are decorated to the max and all the bar crawls that'll have you going from one end of the campus to the other. Who says college kids don't exercise? With all of the hustle and bustle of real life, this is the perfect escape. As if the pressures of college weren't already taking a toll on our sanity — it's coming to be that time when we have to face reality and start applying for jobs. Thinking of dressing up as employed for a Halloween costume? It's the perfect opportunity to let loose and to let go of all the horrible work that we have to face in the next couple of weeks with midterms and all.

Here's my issue with Halloween, though: Halloween is a day that brings out the inner basic in every girl. No judgment of course, my column is and always will be a judgment-free zone. But ladies, a cat? Really? I'm going to cut freshman some slack on this one because well, freshman year. But to all you upperclasswomen — let's be just that — some ladies with class. Now I'm not saying that we should all dress like nuns or Sarah Palin, but surely we can do better than dressing up like woodland animals from the set of the every bad Halloween movie ever.

Why don't we dress up to dress up for fun anymore? Of course we all want to look good, and Halloween gives us some liberties that we don't have otherwise. But what happened to picking costumes based on their fun or witty appeals? And not to appeal to a double standard — same goes for guys. Yeah, okay, dressing up like Caitlin Jenner might be funny in theory, but do you really want to be that guy who offends huge groups of people? Don't risk it my friend. We have the choice to dress up during multiple times of the week and enjoy being silly, young college kids. Let's take advantage of that.

We're all going to graduate soon. Whether you are a senior or a first-year student, these four years go by way too fast. Let's enjoy them and be as college as we can, but in the best way possible. Let's bring back original into the mix, let's stay away from the basic and applaud the fun. In the end, that's all that matters — that we all have fun. So from all of us at the Targum have a happy, silly, fun, safe and spooky Halloween!

Biya Haq is a School of Arts and Sciences senior majoring in journalism and media studies with a minor in digital communication, information and media. Her column, "The Scarlet Trotter," runs on alternate Fridays.